Dot Matrix Business Card

Step 8 The Future

If I produced these commercially, I would probably change a couple of things. Firstly I would change the CR2032 cell to a CR2016 as this is thinner, and then embed it within a space cut in the PCB. By using lower-profile components, the thickness of the card could probably be reduced to about 1/8th of an inch (rather than the current 1/4 inch). By using some of the new thin-film batteries, it might even be possible to make a flexible card, albeit at a higher price. A professionally-printed overlay and a custom die-cut replacement for the foam tape would see the cards assembled much more quickly, and look a little slicker too. Of course the PCBs would be manufactured professionally as well, and populated by a 'pick and place' robot to allow assembly to be sped up even further.

Next, I would like to work on a high-resolution version using a colour OLED display - think photographs and animations. The sky is the limit - almost any electronics could be put into business cards - wireless links, audio soundtracks - if anyone is interested in using these ideas or other related ones commercially, then let me know - you can reach me at [e-mail].

At the bottom of this page I have included the Eagle PCB file for this project. Be warned that it is a slightly different version than the one shown in this instructable, so won't be much use unless you are familiar with Eagle and are happy to make some modifications for your own use. The main changes are that it is double-sided (no need for the tape/wire combination in step 4), the switch type has a slightly different footprint, and I use a different style of battery mount. (For those that want to try it, I drilled a 20mm hole in the centre of the PCB, and then used two diagonal pieces of spring wire on either side of the board to hold the battery in, to make a much thinner finished card).

Comments

[Gonzalo Ruiz]

It's not becouse you make It in a Mac? I use only Windows, i never tried Mac. Anyway I opened It with Notepad of Windows and It says this (a little part): €B | < ÎëH§(ƒ x ™ G©Í ü>€ÂFˆÊ ü>€ÂFˆÊ ü>€ÂFˆÊ ÿ a™™™™™©?a™™™™™™? Top Bottom Pads Vias Unrouted Dimension tPlace bPlace tOrigins bOrigins tNames bNames tValues bValues tStop bStop tCream bCream !" tFinish "! bFinish #$ tGlue $# bGlue %& tTest &% bTest '( tKeepout (' bKeepout )* tRestrict *) bRestrict ++ vRestrict ,, Drills -- Holes .. Milling // Measures 00 Document 11 Reference 22 dxf 34 tDocu 43 bDocu 56 tGND_GNDA 65 bGND_GNDA 87 wert [[ Nets \\ Busses ]] Pins ^^ Symbols __ Names `` Values aa Info bb Guide d Muster ee Patch_Top ff Vscore hh Name tt Patch_BOT yy _tsilk zz _bsilk —— HeatSink ÈÈ 200bmp ÉÉ 201bmp ÊÊ 202bmp úú Descript ûû SMDround þþ cooling P - ««‡ ¸ ó € \ Lightbox E �þÿsë ÐqfSO28W +€ &ïþÿPLÿÿ¸ø* 2 +€ Ú PLÿÿ¸ø* 13 +€ `½þÿPLÿÿ¸ø* 1 +€  ÿÿPLÿÿ¸ø* 3 +€ ^RÿÿPLÿÿ¸ø* 4 +€ vB PLÿÿ¸ø* 14 +€ >ß PLÿÿ¸ø* 12 +€ ¢­ PLÿÿ¸ø* 11 "€ '‘þÿxæ þn xæ ç "€ 'þn ˆÿÿ‘þÿˆÿÿç "€ '‘þÿˆÿÿ‘þÿxæ ç "€ 3„a xoÿÿ|~þÿxoÿÿø "€ 3|~þÿxoÿÿ|~þÿ ƒÿÿø "€ 3|~þÿ ƒÿÿ|~þÿˆ� ø "€ 3|~þÿˆ� „a ˆ� ø "€ 3„a ƒÿÿ|~þÿ ƒÿÿø 1€`½þÿœ1 Î >NAME +€ –µÿÿPLÿÿ¸ø* 6 +€ jJ PLÿÿ¸ø* 9 +€ úƒÿÿPLÿÿ¸ø* 5 +€ 2çÿÿPLÿÿ¸ø* 7 +€ | PLÿÿ¸ø* 10 +€ Î PLÿÿ¸ø* 8 "€ 3„a ˆ� „a ƒÿÿø "€ 3„a ƒÿÿ„a xoÿÿø 1€`½þÿÈœÿÿÎ >VALUE"€ 'þn xæ þn ˆÿÿç +€ vB °³ ¸ø* 15 +€ Ú °³ ¸ø* 16 +€ >ß °³ ¸ø* 17 +€ ¢­ °³ ¸ø* 18 +€ | °³ ¸ø* 19 +€ jJ °³ ¸ø* 20 &€ 3÷³þÿ00ÿÿÇþÿ�kÿÿ &€ 3“åþÿ00ÿÿ¹øþÿ�kÿÿ &€ 3/ÿÿ00ÿÿU*ÿÿ�kÿÿ &€ 3ËHÿÿ00ÿÿñ[ÿÿ�kÿÿ &€ 3gzÿÿ00ÿÿ��ÿÿ�kÿÿ &€ 3¬ÿÿ00ÿÿ)¿ÿÿ�kÿÿ &€ 3ŸÝÿÿ00ÿÿÅðÿÿ�kÿÿ &€ 3; 00ÿÿa" �kÿÿ &€ 3×@ 00ÿÿýS �kÿÿ &€ 3sr 00ÿÿ™… �kÿÿ &€ 3¤ 00ÿÿ5· �kÿÿ &€ 3«Õ 00ÿÿÑè �kÿÿ &€ 3G 00ÿÿm �kÿÿ &€ 3ã8 00ÿÿ L �kÿÿ &€ 3ã8 q” L ÐÏ &€ 3G q” m ÐÏ &€ 3«Õ q” Ñè ÐÏ &€ 3¤ q” 5· ÐÏ &€ 3sr q” ™… ÐÏ &€ 3×@ q” ýS ÐÏ +€ Î °³ ¸ø* 21 +€ 2çÿÿ°³ ¸ø* 22 +€ –µÿÿ°³ ¸ø* 23 +€ úƒÿÿ°³ ¸ø* 24 &€ 3; q” a" ÐÏ &€ 3ŸÝÿÿq” ÅðÿÿÐÏ &€ 3¬ÿÿq” )¿ÿÿÐÏ &€ 3gzÿÿq” ��ÿÿÐÏ +€ ^Rÿÿ°³ ¸ø* 25 +€  ÿÿ°³ ¸ø* 26 +€ &ïþÿ°³ ¸ø* 27 +€ `½þÿ°³ ¸ø* 28 &€ 3ËHÿÿq” ñ[ÿÿÐÏ &€ 3/ÿÿq” U*ÿÿÐÏ &€ 3“åþÿq” ¹øþÿÐÏ &€ 3÷³þÿq” ÇþÿÐÏ Üÿÿ$ õ rf +€2 pÆ Ä°' P$1 +€2 8c ÄÄ P$2 +€2 ÄÄ P$3 +€2 ÈœÿÿÄÄ P$4 +€2 �9ÿÿÄÄ P$5 4ÿaÿÌ f #rf "€3Èœÿÿ8c 8c 8c { "€18c 8c 8c Èœÿÿ{ "€08c ÈœÿÿÈœÿÿÈœÿÿ{ "€2ÈœÿÿÈœÿÿÈœÿÿ8c { +€ ,kÿÿˆ; œ1Î P$1 +€ ,kÿÿxÄÿÿœ1Î P$3 +€ Ô” ˆ; œ1Î P$2 +€ Ô” xÄÿÿœ1Î P$4 mþmþ““ 2rf %€ 3 ö� ö� { *€ `½þÿ`½þÿˆ POS1 *€ vB vB ˆ POS2 *€ `½þÿvB ˆ NEG1 *€ vB `½þÿˆ NEG2 (€ ø* € led íÿÏÿ 1 Lrf?rf +€ L    C +€ ´âÿÿ   A &€ 3lîÿÿ” ” 4! &€ 3lîÿÿÌÞÿÿ” lîÿÿ "€ 3`ðÿÿ” `ðÿÿlîÿÿü "€ 3  ”   lîÿÿü &€ lîÿÿ Hôÿÿ¸ &€ ¸ ” ¸ &€ $úÿÿ Ü ¸ 1€2çÿÿ2çÿÿÎ >NAME And I can't change the name, in properties and when I download It, says: Downloading FJ57QXVFT3K2QPS.tmp... Did you tried to download It in your PC? It's really strange. Now I use Windows 7

[tomward]

After renaming, you will need Eagle PCB (Free download) to view and edit the PCB file.

[Gonzalo Ruiz]

Hi in the step 8, the download link is naemd 'Led Card.brd' and when I download It it´s named 'FJ57QXVFT3K2QPS.tmp'. Why It´s different?Why the format is '.tmp' in stead of '.brd'? Please help me.

[tomward]

Strange - didn't use to do this - tried uploading again and same thing happened. You will need to rename the ".TMP" file to ".BRD" after you have downloaded it - google "Change File Extension" if you need to know how to do this. This is a newer version of the PCB file - a double-sided one with no need to use the "mock double sided board" trick with the sticky tape. Apologies, but no longer have the original board.

[ErisOnline]

Could I potentially use this model to make a really tiny clock?

[kotarski]

Stick a solar panel on the back. That might work.

[Brett_cgb]

First! Consider using a device with an internal clock source - this eliminates the need for external timing components, and often frees up the OSC1 and OSC2 pins for other purposes. A 40-pin device would allow 7 or 8 rows and more columns - this makes for a nicer, more dense display. Consider modifying the code to allow serial insertion / extraction of the ASCII text to be displayed. Code would need to map each character to the required bit pattern.

[tomward]

Very valid points, but all of these decisions were done to minimise cost - updating LEDs is not timing critical (and besides, a single R/C costs only a couple of cents) - the primary cost is LEDs, so I actually wanted to reduce the rows to 5. You certainly could make versions more advanced or higher resolution, but for this exercise I wanted to make the cheapest possible design that could display legible messages. Although mapping ASCII codes directly would make programming easier, the way it is done is not hard to set up, and allows you to program non-text graphics, change inter-character spacing, etc.